Before hosting the Queen’s funeral, Westminster Abbey hosted great moments in her life. A look back at some major dates in the history of the sovereign in this place:
1937 : King George VI, father of Elizabeth II, is crowned on May 12, five months following the abdication of his brother, King Edward VIII. “At the end, the office became rather boring, there were only prayers,” said the 11-year-old princess in a handwritten message.
1947 : Elizabeth says yes to Philip on November 20. Renouncing his titles of Greece and Denmark, the latter becomes Duke of Edinburgh.
1953 : Elizabeth II is crowned on June 2. It is above all the first coronation broadcast on television, in front of 27 million Britons out of 36 million inhabitants. The ceremony lasted nearly three hours, in the presence of 8,251 guests massed on bleachers, and 129 nations and territories were officially represented. In 2018, she described the ride in the carriage as “horrible” due to her discomfort.
1973 : On November 14, Princess Anne is the first of the Queen’s children to marry, marrying an army lieutenant, Mark Philips. Contrary to custom, this Olympic gold medalist rider did not take a title. The couple divorced in 1992.
1986 : After Charles and Diana were married at St Paul’s Cathedral in 1981, Elizabeth II’s second son, Andrew, married Sarah Ferguson on July 23 to much fanfare. Andrew and “Fergie”, who have two daughters (Beatrice and Eugenie), divorced in 1996 but remain close.
1997 : The queen is blamed for the apparent distance she shows following the death of Diana. Nearly a million people gather and regarding 2.5 billion behind their televisions to watch the funeral ceremony on September 6. As the procession passes in front of Buckingham Palace, the Queen bows her head. In his eulogy, Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, lashed out at the royal family.
2002 : The funeral of Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, on April 9 marks the end of an era. Aged 101, she is the last Empress of India. More than 200,000 people follow one another in front of his coffin to pay homage to him.
2011 : On April 29, the biggest royal wedding in a generation, that of William and Kate, is watched by up to two billion viewers worldwide and breathes new life into the British monarchy following years of crisis. The Queen allows Prince William to tear up the original guest list to put more of their friends and fewer dignitaries.
2022 : On March 29, Elizabeth II appeared at the abbey for the last time, for a religious ceremony in homage to her husband Prince Philip, who died nearly a year earlier at the age of 99.
